New Band Alert: Ambulance LTD - An Insight...
By: Rob Webb
'A lot of playing, a lot of driving and not a lot of sleeping...' is how Ambulance Ltd's laidback main-man Marcus Congleton describes their current UK jaunt in support of The Dears.
Having toured Europe with The Killers last year ('I taught Brandon everything he knows!'), Ambulance are looking forward to revisiting a few places this time around.
'Stockholm's pretty good and Amsterdam's an obvious favourite,' smiles Congleton, 'I haven't been to many European cities, so they're all great.'
Their naivety is justifiable. Ambulance have been together two years but are yet to release their eponymous debut LP on these shores. It's scheduled for a March release, a delay Congleton describes as a 'source of frustration.'
'Our label in America has a partnership with Island,' he sighs, 'who didn't want to licence the record to a foreign label, so we had to wait for them set up their own office in the UK.'
They've kept themselves busy in the meantime, winning plaudits for TV appearances back home on Jay Leno, David Letterman and Carson Daly.
They're not just stirring up the media, though. Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed was reportedly moved to tears when he heard Ambulance's cover of 'The Ocean', a compliment that Congleton is understandably proud of.
'It's flattering. The Velvet Underground are one of my favourite bands ever.'
Congleton himself is very much a frontman in the Reed mould, singing and playing guitar as well as writing the songs.
Indeed, he had much of the album prepared before the band's line-up was finalised.
'By the time we had the record contract, we didn't have the full outfit. It was just me and Darren (Beckett, drums),' he explains.
'I had most of these songs before that so it just needed to be arranged and recorded as a band.'
After a few unsatisfactory sessions in London, the band returned to their native New York to complete the record.
'We came back from a two-month stay in London with a group of songs, but we didn't really think we had an album there.'
'We recorded a whole bunch more in New York really quickly. They were much better sessions, and we ended up using most of them with a few songs from London.'
The result is an album that blends the Velvets' quieter moments with a smattering of psychedelia and a healthy dose of jazz and blues.
Breathtaking single 'Stay Where You Are' is out now, and when the album drops in March you can rest assured that Ambulance will be doing anything but.